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Eyes on Trade is a blog by the staff of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (GTW) division. GTW aims to promote democracy by challenging corporate globalization, arguing that the current globalization model is neither a random inevitability nor "free trade." Eyes on Trade is a space for interested parties to share information about globalization and trade issues, and in particular for us to share our watchdogging insights with you! GTW director Lori Wallach's initial post explains it all.

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September 21, 2007

Michigan's Stabenow Stands Strong

As Bloomberg has reported, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) stood strong for fair trade on the Senate Finance Committee to vote against the Peru NAFTA expansion. She was joined by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who are concerned that the FTA's intellectual property protection provisions are not restrictive enough.

I think it is really disappointing when we see members of the legislator and people who continue to accept and encourage laziness in our culture.
America has always been the beacon of hard work, free exchange of capital, people, and ideas. When did we start to impose protectionism? Why are we just trying to protect unproductive jobs, and make the government pay for every failed factury and organization? We are not a welfare state. We are American people who believe in the importance of fair and free trade, hardwork, competition and innovation.
Should we just tolerate that we are loosing jobs at home? No! But we should not just lazily complain about it and not try to re-invent our industry to keep the American edge in a globalized market. We must move forward and promote bills that emphasize education and training new generations of Americans to lead the world economy.
Pitty protectionist policies only delay reality. They make working class people suffer more when the camel back really breaks, and hinder our preparation and potential to create new jobs for the American people who will - if conditions are set forth properly for them today- lead the world economy as the cradle of innovation, change, and progress